Several Trinamool Congress MPs joined veteran politician Somen Mitra at a blood donation camp in the city on Friday,where they criticised the party openly,triggering speculation of a split before the Lok Sabha elections.

Mitra,a Congress old-timer who is now the Trinamool MP from Diamond Harbour,has for long kept a distance from his party leadership. Asked if he was leaving the TMC,Mitra said,Not yet. Many things can happen.

Asked if he might quit in the future,Mitra replied: Who can tell about the future?

Mitras wife Sikha Mitra,a Trinamool MLA who has been freely criticizing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,said neither she nor her husband were given respect in the TMC because they spoke the truth.

But we could not care less about the Trinamool Congress leadership, Sikha Mitra said.

Kunal Ghosh,a Rajya Sabha MP with alleged links to Sudipta Sen of the Saradha Group,claimed a concerted effort was under way to hush up the chit fund scam. I have said that the investigation should be handed over to the CBI and I am ready to be examined by the CBI. I will speak the truth and I will expose those who are actually guilty.

But some leaders are trying to make me a scapegoat. I am scared for my life,and should it be reported some day that I have died in an accident,people must take it that it wasnt an accident,and that I have been murdered, Ghosh said.

Ghosh said the Trinamool was no longer the party it had started out as: The party that led the Nandigram and Singur movements is no longer there. The party that we worked for then was different. Now,leaders who constantly insult Somen Mitra and Sikha Mitra,leaders like Anubrata Mondal who has no respect for (Lok Sabha member from Birbhum) Satabdi Roy,are close to the partys power centre.

Roy,who was present at the gathering along with Krishnanagar Lok Sabha MP Tapas Paul,said she was proud of Sikha Mitra. Sikha Mitra has shown the courage to speak the truth. Sikha Mitra zindabad, Roy said.

Sikha Mitra,whose suspension has been announced by the TMC but who is yet to receive an official letter,said,I have seen that how people who speak the truth are harassed. It does not matter to us any longer what the party thinks of us. But my husband and I will never compromise with wrongdoing. I had once told Mamata Banerjee that she did not realise what price she was paying for the company she was keeping.

Later in the evening,the TMC said it had decided to show-cause Ghosh,Roy and Paul. The disciplinary committee of the Trinamool Congress has decided to show-cause Kunal Ghosh,Satabdi Roy and Tapas Paul for anti-party activity. The letters will be served on them in a day or two, PTI quoted TMC general secretary Mukul Roy as saying.